The present invention relates to an air conditioner for air conditioning such as room air cooling-heating and dehumidifying control and particularly to a control apparatus for the air conditioner having an improved blowing characteristic of a wind blown out into a room.
In an air conditioner of this kind, cooling air or hot air is blown out of a blow-off port of the air conditioner formed on a body casing thereof, thus serving for air conditioning. On a blow-off port side in the air conditioner, there are provided a vertical wind shifting means for vertically shifting the direction of a blowing wind and a horizontal wind shifting means for horizontally shifting the direction of a blowing wind. The vertical and horizontal wind shifting means generally have structures each incorporated with a stepping motor and a blow-off grille (or wind directioning plate), the blow-off grille being shifted by driving the stepping motor.
A prior art control apparatus for the air conditioner is constructed, wherein stepping motors constituting vertical and horizontal wind shifting means are connected respectively to drive circuits. The drive circuits are controlled for operation each by a control unit such as microcomputer, CPU or the like. The stepping motors are connected to a power unit which is also connected to the control unit. The control unit may be controlled by a remote controller.
In the air conditioner, one driving circuit is provided for corresponding one stepping motor, and when the stepping motors are driven, one driving circuit is operated for one stepping motor. In order to shift the direction of the blown-out wind in both the vertical and horizontal directions, two driving circuits are driven concurrently by the control unit and thus blow-off grilles (louvers) are operated continuously and simultaneously.
In the prior art control apparatus for air conditioner, since two vertical and horizontal wind shifting means are driven concurrently by two driving circuits, respectively, and both the vertical and horizontal blow-off grilles (louvers) are operated continuously at all times, a flow of the wind in a room changes vertically and horizontally in an instable manner in which an arrival distance of the wind blown out of the air conditioner is shortened.
Further, in the prior art control apparatus for air conditioner, since one stepping motor and one driving curcuit are prepared for one blow-off grille and driven concurrently for shifting the wind in both the vertical and horizontal ways, two driving circuits are required for driving the blow-off grille verically and horizontally, thus the number of parts inevitably increasing, and since both the driving circuits are driven concurrently, a large power consumption is entailed, and a power unit gets large in construction, providing a problem.